$220,000 in hiring the wrong team and marketing staff.

$250,000 getting caught up in the wrong focus with an agency that didn’t clearly see the founder’s vision.

$150,000 hiring an industry expert who put their own vision for the business first.

$1,000 to partner with an agency that only wanted to do things their way.

Why?  How did this happen?

The examples above are real examples of horror stories I’ve heard, visionary leaders, partnering with providers who just did not align with the visionary leaders’ goals.

It’s what happens when you don’t define your brand.

Here’s how it happens.  The marketing people you hire, agencies you engage with, and very well-intentioned consultants meet with you.  In each meeting you verbally tell them your vision and what you want to accomplish.  They walk away from that meeting, refer to their meeting notes and put their own spin on your vision.  Their meeting notes are biased based on what they think is important, not what you know is important.  Further some want to try the latest fad or trend and incorporate that into their work with you – whether it reflects who you are, or not.

What happens then?

They come back to you with something that’s just not aligned with your vision.  You know it instinctively but typically it’s hard to hit the nail on the head.  So, you send the work back for revisions and again, it’s not quite right.  This may go on for  a few revisions.  Eventually the relationship suffers, you’ve burned your money and you have nothing to show for it.

What to do?

Know who you are.

When you can define who you are by developing a brand platform that is made up of your Brand Essence (the underlying truth of who you are); your Brand Positioning (your unique differentiation); your Brand Promise (the commitment you are making); and your Brand Personality (the way you do it) then no one can put a spin on your vision and how you want to present it to the world.

And here’s the best part…

If they it, meaning, if the people you’ve hired get your Brand Platform and still deliver something that is not on the mark, then guess what?  Now you have a document to hold them accountable to.  You Brand Platform saves you from painful and costly do-overs.

How do you get a Brand Platform?  Contact Studio Pinpoint.  If you are small business with less than 10 employees then you can develop your Brand Platform using Studio Pinpoint’s Brand Guide for Business.

If you liked this posting, you may enjoy this posting on Collaboration that speaks of the intuitive and collaborative process in creative projects.  It’s on my old blog but it’s still great food for thought.

Nature just keeps going.  It’s fluid, not matter what, it flows.  Sometimes it’s devastating, sometimes beautiful.  When a big obstacle falls into a stream does the water stop flowing?

Often times we get halted by the big obstacles that fall into our path.  Why?  Why not live a life that imitates nature?

Being fluid is more than being flexible or just “going with the flow” – because sometimes to be fluid means to go against the flow.

For instance, if you say, “playful and imaginative” what images come to your mind? Personally, I think of daycare centers, a child’s scrawl, and bright, primary colors.

What about “serious and intelligent?” Here I envision the organized structure of banks and insurance companies and darker, subdued colors.

The important thing is to make sure your visuals reflect the words that describe you. And here’s another saying I like:

Creativity loves constraint

What does this mean?
Well, you’ll probably work with a professional designer as you construct your story. And with your brand strategy in hand, you have a framework to guide the designer’s creativity. Within this framework, there’s a universe of “playful and imaginative” ideas to work with.

On the other hand, what if your only instruction to the designer is that you want a professional design? Now she’s staring at millions of universes and asking herself: Should I make this fun, serious, or completely out of this world?

That’s why the brand strategy process is so important. Once you know who you are, you’ll be able to communicate those ideas to the professionals you work with. So let’s take a look at some of the visual elements you need to consider.

Logos
Graphic design visually affects your emotions through the use of fonts, colors, images, and spacing. We often take it for granted, but experience it everywhere.

For example:
Have you ever driven through a neighborhood looking for an address, but grew frustrated because the numbers were not clear? Or what about those large, sprawling airports that you navigate easily because the directions signs are easy to read and follow?

You see there is an art and science behind the use of fonts, spacing, and the graphics that complement them. Behind every award-winning airport, there is an award-winning design team that creates the signage that directs you.

Keep in mind there are also differences between designers. And you should select the one that most naturally fits with expressing who you are. This is where the expertise of marketing professionals like Studio Pinpoint will help. We work with numerous designers, know their particular strengths, and can match you with the right one.

Color Palette
There’s emotional meaning behind various colors. So knowing those meanings and how to maximize colors to build your brand identity is important. Although this isn’t an exhaustive list*, it will give you some ideas on how to use different colors.

• Red: Love, passion, danger, warning, excitement, food, impulse, action, adventure
• Blue: Trustworthy, successful, serious, calm, power, professional
• Green: Money, nature, animals, health, healing, life, harmony
• Orange: Comfort, creativity, celebration, fun, youth, affordability
• Purple: Royalty, justice, ambiguity, uncertainty, luxury, fantasy, dreams
• White: Innocence, purity, cleanliness, simplicity
• Yellow: Curiosity, playfulness, cheerfulness, amusement
• Pink: Softness, sweetness, innocence, youthfulness, tenderness
• Brown: Earth, nature, tribal, primitive, simplicity
• Grey: Neutrality, indifference, reserved
• Black: Seriousness, power, darkness, mystery, secrecy

*source: about.com, basictips.com, and pxmediainc.com

As you look at color schemes, choose a palette of 3 to 5 colors.

Why is that?

Because you want a consistent brand, but freshness in your look. And a palette of 3-5 colors will give you much more flexibility to create material that is captivating, yet still consistent with your image.

For instance, I led the brand revitalization team for an established 100-year-old furniture company that has furnished desk chairs to the Oval Office. They needed to revive their brand so we started by looking at their color palette that was green and black at the time. We ended up with 5 shades of green and three shades of black. This allowed them to keep the green that was a distinctive part of their brand, and increased the elements of color they had to work with.

Photography
A professional photographer, like a designer, will capture photos that are emotionally unique. And just like a designer, the skills differ by studio. At the same time, the Internet has opened up a wide selection of stock photography. Some are free and others you pay for. But again, the saying “you get what you pay for” applies. So be prudent in your approach and don’t undermine the effectiveness of everything else you’ve done in order to save a few dollars.

On the left – free stock photography.  On the right – what you pay for.

Can you tell the difference?

Your goal should be to maximize your brand uniqueness and the emotional appeal of the photos used. Therefore, the differences in the level of professionalism and customization can not be under stated. Again, you can trust the expertise of an agency like Studio Pinpoint that works with various photographers to match you up with the right one.

These are simply a few of the elements you’ll use in composing your visual story that presents you in the right way. There are many others we’ll discuss another time. And if you’re not sure what your story is don’t fret. Studio Pinpoint will help you write one.

Creativity loves constraints.

This is the very essence of why defining your brand is so important.  You learn from artists like Puppet Master Michael Curry and Origamist extraordinaire Robert Lang that the more constrained the conditions the more masterful the art.

It’s the same with your brand.  If you can clearly pinpoint who you are then everything that comes out of your organization will be the best.  I blogged about this almost three years ago and it still holds so true.  In that blog posting I quoted then VP of Search Products and User Experience at Google, Marissa Mayer who said:

People think of creativity as this sort of unbridled thing, but engineers thrive on constraints.

Engineers, PR professionals, marketing staff, agency teams – whomever it may be, giving them a clear definition of who you are by developing a brand platform that is built from your culture and values as its basis will give everyone working for your organization constraints thereby creating an opportunity for them to do their best work.

When communicating to the outside world about who you are…whether it be to potential investors, advisers, vendors, employees or in a hard-hitting marketing and sales campaign the authentic truth wins, every time.

Usually it’s the aspirational truth that makes its way into a market expansion strategy, a sales campaign, a marketing promise, a brand promise and although the team may be very dedicated to their commitment and to that truth, the reality is that they are not there…yet.  What happens when you are communicating your aspirational truth?  What you are saying doesn’t feel authentic, or real.  You’re not walking the talk.

But when you do communicate the authentic truth, you are walking the talk.  That authenticity builds trust and this trust breeds success.  This is what we all want right?  Success.

So be brave, link your message to the authentic truth and you will see that sought-after ROI.

Leave aspiration for the brand, not the message.

Let’s talk about aspirational qualities of a brand next time.

This post is less about shaking a finger at you and lecturing you on how to act, it’s not about that at all.  We are all respectful in how we communicate and work with each other.  This post is about coming into awareness and not taking for granted the responsiveness that you receive and the reciprocal respect you get back.

Stand in awareness today and feel the warmth of responsiveness and reciprocity and let it inspire you to a greater place.

With respect,

Romana

The Elephant

is our emotional side and

the Rider

is our rational side.

It was a presentation by Dan Heath who authored Switch with Chip Heath.  The concept is beautifully laid out in this blog post at Sources of Insight.

Dan said that the rider can have control over the elephant but when the elephant decides not to listen or respond to the rider’s commands – the elephant wins, every time.

Ah ha, so there’s the rub.  Why it’s hard to stay on goal or on task.  Our emotions can derail us at anytime.  Look at the scale and sheer power and impact of an elephant, it’s huge compared to it’s rider.  The work is in figuring out how to have both work in harmony.  Read the posting at Sources of Insight, it outlines this concept beautifully.

It is something I’ve struggled with – and for lack of a better term I have developed brand personalities all along.

Until, one day, it just came out from a rushed email I was sending to a team frantically working to meet an launch deadline for a new organization.  In it I said to the creative team which included web designers, graphic designers, writers and coders:

Please keep in mind this new organization has aspirational, core and subtle qualities and here is what they are, let these qualities inform your work.

Poof, and there it was, a resolution to something that had been eating at me all these years.

A brand’s personality is held in the qualities of that brand.  A brand is made up of the organization and what it stands for.  This includes the people in it.  These people have the personalities, each differs one person to the next.  Together these personalities define the brand.

A strong brand carries in it qualities.

Aspirational Qualities are those that no matter how successful you become you can always aspire to this quality such as innovation, inventiveness, mindfulness, caring and so on.

Core Qualities are those that reflect the underlying truth of what this organization is, they reflect the essence of the brand.  Without these qualities the brand would not be that brand.  Some core qualities I’ve seen are a deeply held value to share, or a deeply held sense of responsibility to the built environment, and so on.

Subtle Qualities are a brand’s competitive edge.  A subtle quality is something that is not clearly felt or seen but underlies every action, every decision, every behaviour.  One of the most impactful of these qualities I’ve seen is serenity.  The company holding this quality is no where near a spa or vacation spot – it is far from it – but in it’s dealings day-to-day this quality is inherent and it is this company’s competitive edge – one that even the competition cannot see and yet it is what keeps this company at the leading edge of its industry.

People have personalities, brands have qualities.

What are your brand’s aspirational, core and subtle qualities?

Founded in 2007, John Olson started The BrandLab as a response to the lack of diversity in the advertising and marketing industry. Refreshing.  Who would have thunk that the same Minneapolis I lived in 12 years ago would be spearheading an initiative I thought would come out of my diverse hometown of Toronto?

I’m thrilled by this program and wish I could spend time there with these amazing high school students, program founders and volunteers to advance the knowledge of marketing, advertising and brand development.

They are expanding beyond the Twin Cities and are connected on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s join in!

That’s a critical mistake!

Building your brand from within is how you truly differentiate yourself. Why? Because when who you are on the inside matches how you present yourself on the outside, people understand you and that builds confidence. This in turn develops trust, which breeds success.

Start by identifying your brand essence.

Brand essence is the underlying truth of who you are. And it’s usually a deeply held core value. For example, a visionary leader who runs a $1 million creative business has a core value that is best described by one word: sharing – with his team members, his community, and his customers. For another leader, it’s responsibility – to customers and to the environment. And yet, another it’s balance–between the left-brain engineering work and right-brain creative work the company is constantly engaged in.

Staying true to this essence in how they present themselves on the outside creates an absolutely unique brand for each one of these companies. To find yours, follow this four-step discovery process.

Step One: Uncover values through your leadership

Company leaders influence the internal culture of your organization. And your company culture is where your values reside. So get to know your leaders first. Evaluate them one by one and ask these questions: What is their character like? What is their personality type? How is each different from the others?

Another approach is to identify each leader’s unique attributes and strengths until you see a pattern of values emerging. As these values are communicated and embraced as part of yourbusiness culture, an authenticity permeates the entire organization and puts everyone in thecompany on the same page. I’ve found a great resource for this to be Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Step Two: Explore how you communicate with customers

Is it serious and professional? Warm and friendly? Technical and objective? Knowing how you come across in your communication is an important part of framing your communication strategy. One of my clients describes his leadership style as open, forthcoming, and friendly. He makes sure this value is understood and followed by his employees. And all communication material is carefully evaluated to make sure it is consistent in this tone of voice.

So identify your communication style and seek a “buy-in” from the people in your company. Then create a list that represents the values that are most important to you. For example: always return a phone call within 24 hours. Start and end meetings on time, and so on. These rules are practical applications for your values.

Step Three: Understand what you offer

Is your product or service innovative, just better, or completely new? What motivated you to develop it in the first place? (frustration with existing product, a vision for a new way of thinking…?) Now think about when customers have a positive experience with your product or service. Do you want them to be relieved? Completely enthusiastic? Feel a sense of safety or comfort? Or something else? Knowing what it is you offer and what you want thecustomer to gain as a result of it allows you to create a message that is on target.

Step Four: Take a step back

Now pause to evaluate your findings and note the adjectives and character traits you’ve discovered. From this vantage point see if a set of values, or a way of ‘being’ emerges. This is what makes you unique and different from your competition. These are the qualities that will form the foundation of your brand.

As a result of this process, you’ll discover the inside you want to present to the outside. It’sthe difference between you and your competition that will make a difference in the success ofyour business.